I was unable to find a demo on the Matrix site, but there is one on the Impulse site and I downloaded it. It has only one scenario (called the campaign), but I am befuddled as to how to set up the battle, although I have read the online manual yesterday. I did not check if there are instructions that come with the demo and will do so after I finish this.

What I really need is a step-by-step tutorial for the demo (assuming there is not already one): press this button and place this unit here, and so on...

BTW I saw on the Graviteam site that they are selling two extra scenarios that do not come with the game, which is a bit surprising for a game that has only a half-dozen scenarios. But they are not expensive though...

Anyway I will report on the demo here soon, assuming I can get my units on the ground.

OK, here is some more info. There are 3 manuals downloaded with the demo: the main manual is in English but all the labels and tables are in Russian. There is a small starting guide in English, and a 78-page "Tactic Guide" in English. The latter explains all the buttons and so on with a lot of graphics, so it is far from useless. It is not a "click-by-click" introduction, but is useful to get started, although you will have forgotten most of what you read by the time you start the game (this game is complex after all).

So I started a game, and the first step is to place your units, and I did manage to place a recon unit consisting of 3 squads in halftracks and a HQ, and other infantry units somewhere on the left flank. The briefing says that the Germans are coming and that I should intercept them, and the arrows seem to indicate that they will attempt to loop around my left flank.The recon unit is along a road leading to a crossroad with a flag, which I presume is an objective probably defended by infantry. I placed the recon unit so that it could duck in the forest along the road if shot at, or move up the road to the objective at the crossroads.

The map then shows two battles, one on the left flank and one on the right where the recon unit is. I click on the recon area to bring up the tactical map, which is a 3-D map that I can zoom in and out. I can still place my recon platoon, so I put two of them along the road with the HQ behind, and the 3rd halftrack on another road a few hundred meters to the left and point them in the general direction of the crossroads. I order the leftmost squad to move toward the crossroad objective, expecting to encounter some resistance but nothing happens. Ileapfrog the other two squads towards the objective, but nothing happens until I reach the objective and capture it.

Hmmmm...no Germans here. The map shows some objectives to the North with German flags so there must be Germans there. So I order two halftracks and the HQ to head along a road in that general direction, while I send the 3rd halftrack looping around to the west to pass along a road between some houses in case there are Germans there. Bad idea...

The two halftracks with the HQ following behind suddenly are attacked by a horde of German infantry to their front and right as a bunch of little yellow men appear all over the place. Not too familiar with the interface, I order the two halftracks to fire back, but I am not sure if the infantry have dismounted or not, and I wait too long to zoom in to find out.The two halftracks and the HQ are massacred before the third halftrack can be brought back, and it too is destroyed. It is not too clear what the little yellow men represent. The Germans should be the little blue men (the enemy is always blue), so why are there both yellow and blue little men killing my men?

I probably should have hunkered down around the crossroads objective since apparently the German infantry was attacking, and separating my platoon was not a good idea . I never made it to the other battle on the other flank, so I will restart the game. After playing I saw in the manual that there is both a quick interface and a complete one, and I was using the quick interface. The full interface should give me more options but we will see if I can avoid annihilation on my second try.

When I reloaded the game it had preserved the strategic map,so I went to the other battle where I had 3 infantry platoons, 2 with 3 squads and one with 5 squads. Here I did fine because I moved them toward the likely enemy position in a pincer, and caught what looked like a single German platoon in a crossfire and apparently wiped them out. I then was moving them to good positions towards the enemy when I pressed a wrong button and left the game.

So I reloaded the recon attack and this time rapidly moved to the crossroads objective knowing that there were no Germans there. Then I strung out my 3 squads along the road to face what I thought would be the German advance I had seen in the previous attempt. I had a bit of confusion learning the commands (for instance you can give commands to either a full platoon or a single squad, and I kept wondering my my command halftrack was deploying ahead of its infantry). And where the heck is that "dig in" command? I was still organizing my units and trying to align their fields of fire when the enemy began to appear and some of my units opened fire.

I thought I had them pretty much covered when I noticed that more Germans were appearing on my left flank and that I had deployed my platoons too far South. So I ordered the one that was furthest to come up the road to bolster up that flank, but before they got there, hordes of Germans were behind my left flank and picked off the moving platoon. The Germans were now BEHIND me, and I desperately tried to readjust my fields of fire as my men were getting shot in the back, but total confusion occurred and once again my troops were slaughtered.

Maybe I should play more realistically and after all the role of a recon platoon is not to make a defensive line, but to find the enemy and then to get the hell out. Maybe I should try that.

Hmmmm...no Germans here. The map shows some objectives to the North with German flags so there must be Germans there. So I order two halftracks and the HQ to head along a road in that general direction, while I send the 3rd halftrack looping around to the west to pass along a road between some houses in case there are Germans there. Bad idea...

There is no direct connection between operational and tactical phases. If in the operational phase enemy was in some place it's not mean that in tactical battle enemy will be in same part of map. Both user and AI have some freedom in placing units.

quote:

The two halftracks with the HQ following behind suddenly are attacked by a horde of German infantry to their front and right as a bunch of little yellow men appear all over the place. Not too familiar with the interface, I order the two halftracks to fire back, but I am not sure if the infantry have dismounted or not, and I wait too long to zoom in to find out.The two halftracks and the HQ are massacred before the third halftrack can be brought back, and it too is destroyed. It is not too clear what the little yellow men represent. The Germans should be the little blue men (the enemy is always blue), so why are there both yellow and blue little men killing my men?

Your troops always marked red ( no matter Russian or Germans ), enemy troops always blue. Yellow icons shows that there was a visual contact and then it's lost. So yellow color for you not mix it with real enemy. Yellow icon do not says that enemy still there.

A review of the demo (in English) is at "http://www.violentgamerreviews.com/2011/12/achtung-panzer-operation-star.html". The reviewer liked the game and says that the game is for hardcore gamers only, the kind who play Combat Mission for example (I agree).

I checked around and indeed most of the demo links I found (Including two on the Graviteam site) do not work. The one that does work is the one on the Impulse (Gamestop) site, which is probably where I got it. You have to install the Impulse application first. I have bought a few games with Impulse and like Steam and Gamersgate and Matrix, I have had no problems and I can download games I bought from them in the past as well as updates. Only problem is I get popup ads from them every day. So for the moment it looks like the only download site that works for the demo.

Thanks for the update (and verification). Thought I was going nuts or my new puter was broke.

I bought Sins of a Solar Empire many moons ago and played it to death for months; so I'm a member but I have not installed it on the new machine. I may have to do that, then I'll be up with Impulse again.

I'm going to be patient for a while. I have other games that are keeping me occupied. ... that sounds good ... wish I did get paid to play war games ... a nice occupation that would be

don't know if you saw Achtung Panzer kharkov 1943, the previous game to this one is $4 at Amazon. I had trouble with the demo also but am interested in the system so i purchased the previous game from amazon to try it out.

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Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground* I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

don't know if you saw Achtung Panzer kharkov 1943, the previous game to this one is $4 at Amazon. I had trouble with the demo also but am interested in the system so i purchased the previous game from amazon to try it out.